Senior Research Fellow , Glasgow Caledonian University

Doctoral Researcher, School of Health Insurance And Lifestyle Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University

Disclosure statement

Karen Lorimer gets funding that is grant the principle Scientist workplace, Scottish Government.

Jen MacDonald is funded by a Glasgow Caledonian University PhD stipend.

Glasgow Caledonian University provides capital as a founding partner for the discussion UK.

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The proposal of an ultra-thin condom made of graphene and latex brings design of this contraceptive to the century that is 21st. We now have yet to see a prototype, nevertheless the designers in the University of Manchester stated the thinnest and strongest condom ever made would enhance feeling while having sex, that they wish will encourage more condom usage.

Graphene is a kind of carbon that’s been touted a “miracle material”, could be one-atom dense the strongest ever calculated and an alternative for silicone. James Hone, an engineering teacher from Columbia University, stated it abthereforelutely was so strong that “it would simply just take an elephant, balanced on a pencil, to indian mail order brides split by way of a sheet of graphene the depth of Saran Wrap cling film”|film” that is cling.

The program at Manchester is always to combine graphene with latex, presently the material that is main in making condoms, to create their very own. But will enhancing sensation really cautilize individuals to utilize condoms more?

Choosing the fit that is right

They’re still unpopular for a variety of reasons despite condoms being one of the best ways to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as chlamydia and HIV.

There’s been great deal of research performed into focusing on how usually condoms are now being used, just just exactly what issues are related to with them and people’s attitudes towards them. A range of social and factors that are psychological exactly how much we utilize condoms, such as for instance lack of pleasure, the odor (commonly from latex) and arguments which they result some guys to reduce their erection.

Individuals have a tendency to think about the recognized advantages and disadvantages of condoms and safer intercourse. There was a spectrum of condom usage from individuals staying away from them at all, to with them inconsistently or trying to utilize them and failing. And a growing human anatomy of scientific studies are telling us more about the mistakes and dilemmas folks have when utilizing condoms – including fit, breakages and spillages.

Cops and rubbers

There has been numerous tries to market condom usage around the world. In Thailand for instance, attempts had been made for the 1980s to boost condom used to reduce the country’s high birth prices so when section of an HIV prevention programme within the 1990s. The federal government caused brothel owners to enforce condom use, there clearly was an advertising campaign and police distributed condoms through something called the “cops and rubbers” initiative.

Thailand’s ‘Mr Condom’ at TEDx.

Despite some success, dilemmas stay with condom usage nevertheless lower in rural areas particularly. This points to deficiencies in understanding and accessibility to condoms as a good basis for low usage. But even yet in the western where condoms are acquireable and intimate training programmes raise understanding, high prices of STIs persist. Therefore will it be actually constantly about deficiencies in supply?

Condoms when it comes to unclean?

Overview of 268 qualitative studies in The Lancet discovered seven key themes reported by young adults about non-safe sex, including which they had been stigmatising or suggested too little trust. Another was at the perception of prospective intimate partners as “clean” or “unclean” – therefore if someone ended up being considered the previous it absolutely was okay never to make use of a condom. Other expectations that are social including the anxiety about appearing “easy” or otherwise not additionally arrived into play.

Offered social reasons influence intimate behaviour, brand brand new technology including the graphene condom (and another idea checking out “shape memory”) won’t fundamentally improve attitudes toward making use of condoms. It’s there’s that are clear some path to take right here.

But emphasising pleasure could be a fresh narrative that encourages some to consider the pros and cons a little differently. For the many part, tries to encourage teenagers to utilize condoms employ scare strategies that emphasise the effects of staying away from them. However some of our research has unearthed that teenagers really reject these fear narratives and want a tone that is different health communications. So a condom that emphasises “enhanced pleasure” might be effective of these teams. Our company is additionally considering the attitudes of older grownups towards condom usage, because they stay intimately active.

The social and social forces at play that influence exactly exactly how teenagers behave into the bed room means information that is merely providing condoms is not sufficient to result in alterations in intimate behavior. While clinical improvements in intimate wellness such as for example graphene condoms could possibly be extremely important, getting individuals to use them into the beginning calls for a deeper knowledge of the social and cultural forces at the job.